Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Soundtrack Retrospective: "It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"

This month’s film is Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ (1982). I know it'll be a favourite of a few regular readers too.

The original theatrical trailer doesn’t do it justice, with the cod-private-eye voiceover, and no starring role for the wonderful Vangelis theme:

By contrast, the trailer for ‘The Final Cut’ version is much, much slicker, as is the film itself, shorn of some of the original slip-ups in editing:

Yet that, too, doesn’t do justice to the atmospheric soundtrack, played to best effort over that iconic shot of the dystopian skyline:

The story behind its making is almost as enjoyable as the film itself. Who could now imagine it with its originally-tipped leading man, one Dustin Hoffman? Would it have become as celebrated a sci-fi classic with a different cast?

13 comments:

Oh yeah my favourite film ever,I love it,think Ill watch it again tonight with a pizza.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe: Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time; like tears in rain. Time to die."

Classic line,makes me bub every time,Rutger wrote that himself you know!

It's bollocks. What really happens here in the Off World Colonies is the replicants and colonists all sit around scratching their balls, drinking beer, talking about cricket and eyeing up the Sheilas. And most of them do know what a tortoise is ;-)

Glorious film. Have to second Stan - my favourite film ever. I was lucky enough at university that the local fleapit used to screen the Director's Cut at the end of every term. I ended up seeing it 7 times on the big screen.

And to add to the factoids, the Stranglers also did a song called Time to Die, with the not quite so good lines:

"My eyes have gazed upon thingsYou couldn't even imagineNeon storms on the airstrips at Sales Marsh

I saw hope in King Gomez Cape of eyesBefore the Ten Year Fog

Alas these things will disappearLike shifting sands in an ocean's bedTime to dieTime to die"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgxJ5cXZB8Q&feature=related

Oh, and of course, more famously, one of the buildings in the film is the Millenium Falcon.

Just about everything Rutger Hauer did in that film was beyond ordinary acting.

Add, rather more frivolously, Cary Elwes's sword fight, Jurgen Procnow in a surface attack, maybe even O'Toole being a bit of a rogue in a tunnel. Don't mention the Singing Ringing Tree... and you only have to think of it all to cheer you up.

Yep, the Falcon is in there, upended with the front pointing up like two small towers. It's visible just as Deckard is being taken to the police station - but you do need to know where to look, and it has been modified a bit.

I'd heard it was there from various friends but it was Paul Sammon's excellent book that confirmed it for me, and told the story of how it got there. There are now a few places on the web highlighting where it is.

Apparently, Lucas responded by putting a couple of Bladerunner spinners into Phantom Menace, but I really can't be bothered to sit through that tripe again!

As for the Dick book, it is a good read, but it's a very, different story. I could say I prefer the film, but they're so different that I'm not sure it's really fair to compare.